As Victoria readies a long-awaited $780-million plan to stop dumping raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean, a coalition of top ocean scientists are decrying the project as nothing more than pandering to a squeamish electorate.

“It all comes down to the ‘icky factor’; people don’t like the idea of putting poop in the ocean,” said Tom Pedersen, director of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. “The truth is, we’re in a very fortunate position here in Victoria in which to discharge sewage into a marine setting.”

Almost all of Victoria’s sewage — about 1,500 liters per second — is discharged through two pipes running more than a kilometre off the city’s southern coast. Aside from a 6mm mesh that sieves out condoms, feminine products and other large particulates, the sewage is untreated.

The new plan, announced last week at an upscale hotel on the Victoria waterfront, would see sewage funneled to a waterfront treatment plant at the entrance to the city’s iconic Inner Harbour. After liquid sewage was filtered away, the remaining “sludge” would be piped 20 kilometres north to a “biosolids digestion facility” at the city’s Hartland Landfill. “Its time has come, and we’re taking action,” said Conservative MP James Moore.

Although the project is backed by more than $500-million in provincial and federal funding, it is expected to add up to $500 per year to local property tax bills.

In a July 18 open letter, Chrétien-era environment minister David Anderson, who lives in Victoria, criticized the project as a unnecessary boondoggle that ignored “decades” of scientific evidence. “Governments have been more interested in playing to the gallery of public opinion than taking on the harder task of explaining the facts to their constituents and critics,” he wrote.

It makes no sense to replace a natural ecosystem service with a human creation that is energy inefficient and has other harmful environmental consequences

Victoria is the only major Pacific Coast city north of San Diego without any sewage treatment. Halifax used to dump untreated waste into its harbour until it inaugurated a $333-million treatment plant in 2008. Within months, the city’s beaches were opening to swimmers for the first time in decades.

But while Halifax was dumping its waste into an enclosed basin, Victoria is simply injecting “a tiny pinprick of nutrient-laden, organic sewage” into the deep, fast, oxygen-rich waters of the Juan da Fuca strait, said Mr. Pedersen. “It’s mostly organic matter, and Mother Nature’s really good at processing that,” he said.

A 2008 op-ed by eight B.C. ocean scientists concurred. “It makes no sense to replace a natural ecosystem service with a human creation that is energy inefficient and has other harmful environmental consequences,” it read. That same year, six former B.C. medical health officers also rose up in opposition to a treatment regime. “The proposed additional treatment will not result in any improvement for public health and may in fact have a negative impact,” it read.

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Of course, in addition to organic matter, Victoria’s sewage is also laden with pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals and pretty much anything else that can fit in a toilet bowl. For that, say scientists, the city needs to implement a stricter “source control” regime to educate citizens about flushing noxious substances.

In a 2004 Ipsos-Reid survey, Victorians favoured “enhanced source control” over any other form of waste management. Nevertheless, a 2006 scientific review dismissed source control as an “unlikely” solution to contaminated wastewater, particularly as the city’s population increases.

For nearly 20 years, sewage has been a popular point of contention for Victoria student groups, environmental advocates and community organizations. People Opposed to Outflow Pollution (POOP), was easily the most visible. The organization’s mascot, an anthropomorphized log of human excrement named Mr. Floatie, could often be seen marching in parades or handing out literature in Victoria’s tourist district.

By this point, however, sewage treatment is a legal matter. Since 2006, Victoria has been under a provincial order to improve its treatment program, and the facilities will likely be needed to pass muster on an upcoming set of federal water regulations. Regardless, opponents maintain that the city may still be able to duck the project by applying for a waiver.

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